Ever since I started working in search recruitment back in 1997, a common objection I hear from clients is “What do your services offer us that we can’t do ourselves”? This is a great question – and one an employer should always ask any prospective recruiter.

As an employer, if you are in the fortunate position of being able to hire good people through your own advertising and word of mouth; then realistically a recruiter cannot offer you much.

For the vast majority of jobs, whether blue-collar, white collar or management – it’s hard to find good people and most companies struggle to recruit. This is where recruiters come into play.

As a market leading recruitment organisation we are in a somewhat unique position at the “cutting edge” of dealing with people leaving organisations on a day-to-day basis. A common misconception is that as a headhunt search company we somehow have mystical power to “spirit” people away from blissfully happy jobs. The reality is completely different. On average over 60% of individuals we pro-actively approach will rebuff our advances as they are happy with their present situation. Unless there is an underlying issue there we are unable to persuade that person to talk about moving.

If you resign your job, and your existing employer offers you a better package or a different job to stay; this is called a Counter-Offer. If you are thinking about accepting a counter offer to stay in a job when you’ve already resigned, or you’re thinking of using a potential employer’s job offer to get your current company to pay you more money read on.

We have over 400 cumulative years of experience at Wynne Consulting and we are regularly faced with these situations.

In the vast majority of situations, using another job offer as a bargaining chip to get more money may be tempting, but it usually ends badly. If you want a salary increase/promotion, then negotiate it on your own merits; or prepare to move jobs.

Whenever we broach this subject, we always get feedback along the lines of “You’re a recruiter, it’s in your personal interests to dissuade candidates from accepting counter-offers as you will lose your fee”. This maybe the case with other recruiters, but for us this is not the case and is missing the point.

I was chatting to my father over the weekend about his experiences of job “interviews” in the 1960’s when he first left college. Morose interviewers firing open questions over an imposing oak desk whilst portraying the demeanor of a disinterested headmaster thinking “why on earth should I bother giving you a job?”.

This kind of arrogant interview style was commonplace where there is a rich choice of candidates to employ; where jobs are few and interviewees are plentiful.

Fast-forward to 2014 and the vast majority of the market sectors we operate in genuinely struggle to identify and recruit the top talent in their sector. A shortage of highly skilled people coupled with an improving economy and falling unemployment makes the battle for talent even more intense.

One of the biggest decisions many professionals take in their career is not just whether to take that great job opportunity, but is it the right thing to do to move lock, stock & barrel to the other part of the country (or continent!) that the new job demands. Here’s the view of top UK headhunter Wynne Consulting.

“On one side – limiting career progression to the commuting distance from your home can be very restrictive to your career in the long-term; whereas a full job relocation often means leaving behind your friends, family and the standard of living you’re accustomed to (whether that’s a good thing or not!). Relocation is a massive step to take but for the brave it significantly increases the scope and volume of job opportunities available.

As a specialist recruitment business we are continually asked by clients to recruit highly skilled people with specialist skill-sets throughout the UK and Europe.

The nature of the high technology marketplace is that individual expertise and a collective capability of your people to deliver top quality solutions are the fundamental strengths of all successful businesses.

The critical part of that process is a companies’ ability to hire and retain top quality talent from a competitive marketplace. The other companies that you compete with are all looking to hire the same people so your ability to identify and hire the people you need often is the key difference between success and failure.

I was chatting to a client last week who we’ve worked with for many years and he was telling me about a conversation he had with a recruitment agency. They told him they could find him the people he needed to grow his business. He asked them how they found people to which they replied they use advertising and Internet job boards such as Monster, Jobsite.

The problem is top performing people in any industry don’t need to “look” for a job by posting their CV online, or replying to job ads.

For most of them, career opportunities come to them through their reputation in the industry.

Wynne Consulting has spent many years nurturing and developing our network of contacts in the market sectors we service; so we are able to give our clients access to the top talent in their market sector, so giving them the competitive edge in the most important area of all – the quality of their people.

So. Can your existing recruitment supplier do this? If not, talk to Wynne Consulting today to explore how we can give you the competitive edge.

Failure is the crucial learning tool that everyone needs in order to progress and succeed. If you’re afraid of failure you’ll never progress. You’ve got to fail sometimes to succeed overall.

We love the following quote from US basketball superstar Michael Jordan:

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career.
I’ve lost almost 300 games.
26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed.
I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life.
And that is why I succeed.”

An inevitable eventuality of the improving economy is an increase in demand for skilled people; and a resultant shortage of good people available on the “open job market”.

So – ask yourself this. As the economy improves, can recruitment agencies, CV websites and advertising really find you the skilled people you desperately need for your business to survive and grow? More and more we are finding the answer to this question is “no”.

According to a recent report, salaries are rising at their fastest pace in 7 years as companies fight for skilled workers.